Products and Resources Catalog

The Central East MHTTC and HeadsUp collaborated to produce the video Availability and Accessibility of Coordinated Care in HHS Region 3. Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) is a recovery-oriented treatment program for individuals who have experienced a first episode of psychosis (FEP). The 10-minute video features interviews with family members, researchers and behavioral health professionals, who discuss their experiences, research, policy and practices and offer recommendations for addressing the issue. This educational tool, which targets secondary school professionals, highlights the availability of specialized FEP resources and treatment options in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, DC and West Virginia.

By the end of this webinar, participants were able to describe: The nature of insight and treatment engagement in psychotic disorders An overview of the causes of impaired insight and treatment engagement in psychotic disorders. Approaches to management of impaired insight and treatment engagement/alliance in psychotic disorders.   Presenter: ​​Dr. Keshavan is Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, as well as Academic Head of the department. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Schizophrenia Research (Elsevier) and serves on the editorial board for journals such as Early Intervention in Psychiatry and Asian Journal of Psychiatry. His main areas of research include the neurodevelopmental basis of schizophrenia, neuroimaging, and early intervention. He has an active clinical practice.   This webinar was co-hosted by the Massachusetts Psychosis Network for Early Treatment (MAPNET, www.mapnet.online).

SMI Adviser is a 6-year initiative funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and administered by the American Psychiatric Association. SMI Adviser’s vision is to transform care for people who have serious mental illness so that they can live their best lives. To date, the website has been accessed over 1.9 million times and has been a resource for over 70,000 interdisciplinary learners.  In this presentation, we will provide clinicians a guide to the resources at SMI Adviser, with a focus on resources for working with individuals with early psychosis. We will also highlight resources that are found in our Centers of Excellence section, focusing on tools in the Clozapine and Long-Acting Injectable areas. We will also guide clinicians through our consultation service and share insights from the types of questions our users most commonly ask.   At the end of this presentation, participants were able to: Demonstrate knowledge of the available resources on SMI Adviser’s educational catalog and knowledge base. List and describe three tools in SMI Adviser’s Clozapine or Long-Acting Injectable Center of Excellence. Outline the process of accessing SMI Adviser’s consultation service, demonstrating the ability to effectively seek guidance to help make evidence-based treatment decisions. Presenters: Robert O. Cotes, MD, is an Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He serves as Physician Expert for SMI Adviser (www.smiadviser.org), which is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and administered by the American Psychiatric Association. SMI Adviser provides evidence-based resources to clinicians, individuals with serious mental illness, and their families. Sherin Khan, LCSW is Vice President of Operations and Strategy for Thresholds, Illinois’ oldest and largest provider of mental health services. Sherin also serves as the social work consultant as part of SMI Adviser, a SAMHSA funded clinical support system for people living with serious mental illness. She has over 10 years of experience in the non-profit sector with a focus on serving those who are disempowered. This webinar was co-hosted by the Massachusetts Psychosis Network for Early Treatment (MAPNET, www.mapnet.online).

Raúl Condemarín shares culturally responsive strategies that he uses as a psychiatrist with host Lola Nedic. This podcast episode is sponsored by the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC).

Recording for the National Center for School Mental Health led event Understanding and Preventing Youth Suicide, originally held on February 13, 2024. Slide presentation

Recording of the event Early-Stage Psychosis: The Basics and Best Practice Updates, originally held on February 29, 2024.    

Recording of the event The Connection Between Quality of Life and Mental Health in the Black Community, originally held on January 18, 2024.   Slide presentation

Dr. Gagen reviewed a metacognitive framework for understanding psychosis and discussed a specific psychotherapeutic intervention--Metacognition Reflection and Insight Therapy. We discussed the definition of metacognition and the four main domains that are measured, the relationship between metacognitive capacity and psychological distress, and the research evidence that supports this approach.   Presenter: Emily Gagen, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist at the Brookline Community Mental Health Center. She is the director of the Massachusetts Psychosis Access and Triage Hub (M-PATH) and a member of the team at the Center for Early Detection, Assessment, and Response to Risk (CEDAR). Dr. Gagen has worked with individuals with psychosis and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders for 15 years and specializes in the treatment of young adults with early psychosis.   View a recording of this 1/26/24 session here.

This presentation reviewed the history of evidence-based treatments for borderline personality disorder and the components common to all effective treatments, with a specific focus on Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Good Psychiatric Management. In addition to explaining both treatments’ components, theory, and evidence base, this presentation discussed the costs and benefits of each one and the situations in which they can be most effectively used.   Presenter: Dr. Choi-Kain is currently the Director of the Gunderson Personality Disorders Institute (GPDI), an internationally recognized center of training for empirically supported treatments for borderline personality disorder (BPD) and research on outcomes as well as the social cognitive mechanisms targeted in these interventions.   View a recording of this 1/10/24 session here. 

This two-day hybrid conference explores progress and updates on the Massachusetts Strategic Plan for Early Psychosis (Mass-STEP). Our theme this year was Scaling Up: Access & Equity for Psychosis, and explored strategies to expand the reach of high-quality psychosis services across Massachusetts. This effort includes partners from many different backgrounds, including individuals and families, government stakeholders, researchers, clinicians, teachers, faith leaders, emergency responders, and all others who are invested in improving our statewide system of care for psychosis. The second day explored different areas of health equity in psychosis, spotlighting ways to bridge service gaps in geography, race, and language.   Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Psychosis Diagnoses & Risk Deidre Anglin, PhD City University of New York View a recording of this 11/7/23 session here.   Working with Medical Interpreters: Shifting from Standards of Practice to Intersubjectivity in the Clinical Space Margaret Lanca, PhD Cambridge Health Alliance View a recording of this 11/7/23 session here.   Psychosis Care for Rural Populations Kristen Woodberry, MSW, PhD & Sarah Lynch, LCSW Maine Medical Center View a recording of this 11/7/23 session here.   Expanding & Strengthening the Mental Health and Early Psychosis Career Pipeline for Black and Latinx Youth S. Kwame Dance, PsyD, MBA Mental Health ACCESS & Boston Arts Academy View a recording of this 11/7/23 session here.      

This two-day hybrid conference explores progress and updates on the Massachusetts Strategic Plan for Early Psychosis (Mass-STEP). Our theme this year was Scaling Up: Access & Equity for Psychosis, and explored strategies to expand the reach of high-quality psychosis services across Massachusetts. This effort includes partners from many different backgrounds, including individuals and families, government stakeholders, researchers, clinicians, teachers, faith leaders, emergency responders, and all others who are invested in improving our statewide system of care for psychosis.   The first day of the conference highlighted our MA psychosis community with an in-person poster and award session at the Bentley University Conference Center. NIMH Senior Advisor Dr. Robert Heinssen led a keynote on translational research in psychosis.    National Trends in Specialty Care for Early Course Psychosis: Recent Advances & Future Directions Robert Heinssen, PhD National Institute of Mental Health View a recording of this 11/6/23 session here.    A Social Model of Support for Psychosis Vesper J. Moore Kiva Centers View a recording of this 11/6/23 session here. 

Prolonged delays from psychosis onset to care (or Duration of Untreated Psychosis-DUP) can imperil the benefits even of evidence-based Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) clinics. Early detection efforts to shorten DUP are thus a necessary component of modern early intervention  services for schizophrenia. The NIMH-funded Mindmap campaign reported the first successful demonstration of DUP reduction in a U.S. region. Details of the design and implementation of Mindmap will be presented with lessons for future early intervention efforts.   Presenter: Vinod Srihari, MD is a staff psychiatrist at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University, and the founding Director of the Program for Specialized Treatment Early in Psychosis (STEP). STEP completed the first U.S. based RCT of specialty team based care for early psychosis and followed this with the first successful replication of the Scandinavian TIPS study of DUP reduction. The Program delivers a care pathway that integrates early detection with CSC and within a population health framework that targets geographically defined populations. This webinar was co-hosted by the Massachusetts Psychosis Network for Early Treatment (MAPNET, www.mapnet.online).   View a recording of this 11/3/23 session here. 

Dr. Irwin discusses health disparities for individuals with serious mental illness across the cancer continuum. She reviews the development of a model of person-centered collaborative care, including findings from a recent randomized trial, and introduces a coalition dedicated to ensuring mental illness is never a barrier to cancer care.   Presenter: Dr. Kelly Irwin is an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a faculty psychiatrist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center and MGH Schizophrenia Program. She is the founding director of the Collaborative Care and Community Engagement Program, a clinical and research initiative dedicated to improving cancer outcomes for individuals with serious mental illness in the Center for Psychiatric Oncology and Behavioral Sciences at the Mass General Cancer Center.   View a recoding of this 9/22/23 session here. 

Recording of the event Advances in Mental Health Stigma Reduction, originally held on May 3, 2023.   Slide presentation

Recording of the event Barriers and Risk Factors for Black LGBTQ+ Youth: Suggestions for Improving their Lived Experiences, originally held on May 2, 2023.   Slide presentation

Recording of the event Addressing Health Inequities in Life Expectancy Through Community-Engaged Research, originally held on May 9, 2023.   Slide presentation

Recording of the Rock Recovery-led event The Truth About Food Addiction, originally held on April 25, 2023.   Slide presentation

Recording of the event Return of the Repressed: Re-emergence of Either/or Thinking as a Defense Against Racial Awakening, originally held on April 20, 2023.   Presentation slides

Differentiating between autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorder can be quite difficult, particularly in adolescents and young adults. This educational webinar reviews the two diagnoses and how to differentiate between them. For individuals who have both disorders, figuring out which one is actually contributing to the patient’s impairment can be challenging, and this webinar will address this concern. Finally, how to treat those with autism, those with psychosis, and those with both disorders is reviewed.   Presenter: Dr. Jean A. Frazier is the Executive Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center at UMass Chan Medical School. This event was in collaboration with MAPNET (Massachusetts Psychosis Network for Early Treatment). View a recording of this 3/24/23 session here. 

Recording of the event Social Influencers of Health and Suicide in Black Youth, originally held on March 1, 2023.   Slide presentation

Recording of the Rock Recovery-led event Eating Disorders 101 and an Introduction to Intuitive Eating, originally held on February 28, 2023.   Presentation slides

Recording of the event Management of Psychotic Disorders in the Black Community, originally held on February 23, 2023.   Presentation slides

Recording of the event Psychoeducation & Psychosis, originally held on February 21, 2023.   Presentation slides

Recording of the event Race-Based Stress & Psychosis, originally held on December 13, 2022.   Presentation slides